ECON 337 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Nazi Concentration Camps, Gavin Wright, Gilgit-Baltistan
Document Summary
Theories on this matter are different and disputed: Elkins (1959) compared north american slaves to the inmates of nazi concentration camps. In both cases, the reason was that dependence was too great for significant self-interested individualism to develop among the slaves. Genovese (1976) studied slave revolts in north and south america. Slave resistance in north america was quite less intense. Several factors influenced on the different pattern of behavior (surrounding geography, racial ratio of the population, size of the slave unit, presence of slave owners, etc. Slavery was not a system irrationally kept in existence by plantation owners. The slave system was not economically moribund on the eve of the civil war. Slave agriculture was efficient relative to free agriculture. Apparently, most of scholars agree, or agree with provisos. The material conditions of slaves compared favorably with those of free industrial workers right before the civil war.
